director under house democratic leader house pelosi and is going to speak next. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. thank you, dr. bookbinder. great to see so much leadership here including the aids foundation marking its 30 years leadership fighting the prevention of hiv/aids this weekend. of course judy auerbach, we're thankful for grant colfax working in washington entrusting him with aids polecy. every time hiv/aids is threatened for san francisco, mayor ed lee comes to washington. he walks the halls, he commands the attention and respect not only of leader pelosi, but everybody that's necessary to help save what we need here in san francisco. so, thank you mayor lee for your leadership as well. (applause) >> leader pelosi couldn't be here today, but she asked me to share some words with you from her, which i'll do now.

dear friends, thank you for invieedthing me to participate in the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the san francisco department of public health's new bridge hiv research facility. while i am unable to be with you in person, i joan you in celebrating the opening of the state-of-the-art research center which was constructed with federal funding through the national institutes of health and the american recovery and reinvest act. i would like to recognize two outstanding leaders in our fight against hiv/aids. your executive director dr. susan bookbinder and director of public health barbara garcia. also please join me in thanking mayor ed lee for his leadership in assuring that san francisco ans living with hiv/aids continue to have access to the care they need. (applause) >> the fight against hiv/aids has been one of my top legislative priorities for 25 years. as one of the earliest and hardest hit cities, san francisco has also been at the forefront of responding to the crisis of hiv/aids.

from our community-based system of care to the cutting edge research at ucsf. working together we apply san francisco's model on a national scale with the creation of the ryan white care act, housing opportunities for people with aids and the national aids strategy. now with the passage of the affordable care act, we will ensure that everyone including hiv patients has ensurance of the ability to afford lifesaving medications. with the addition of the federally supported bridge hiv research facility, our city will continue to lead the way as we strive for better treatments, a vaccine, and finally a cure to the scourge of hiv/aids. i will continue working in congress to ensure our nation investments in research and medical advances based focused on new treatments, care, prevention, and early intervention and expand housing opportunities and end discrimination for people with hiv/aids. thank you again for your leadership and best wishes for a memorable ribbon cutting

ceremony. best regards, nancy pelosi, democratic leader. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. and we are again so happy to have our federal representatives, our state representatives, and i am next going to introduce commissioner chow who is with our health commission. on the local level we have tremendous support and tremendous innovation. (applause) >> thank you. and i am indeed privileged to be here on many levels. and there's been so much and reminiscing of how we have all gone through the aids epidemic. i am reminded that as a private practitioner back in the '80s and as the president of the san francisco medical society at that time, we took on the fight here in california to bring to the california medical

association and ultimately to the nation the san francisco model and how we were going to care for our people here in san francisco. there was not going to be discrimination. there was going to be full access to all care that our citizens and our residents needed here, whatever the problem was. and we were going to fight aids. i've been privileged over these last 20 some odd years to also being able to assist with the city's policies and regards to being a member of the health commission. and i am so proud that today we're seeing the culmination of research facilities that as mayor lee has pointed out will become part of our world class innovation for san francisco. so, coming from trying to serve individuals who had aids all the way to the final answer, as

i heard dr. bookbinder tell us that the health commission was on the verge of what i hope was in this building we're going to be able to do, we from the health commission are extremely proud that our city has been able to be at the forefront on a national and world level. i congratulate everybody. i thank president obama. i thank all of our federal, state, and local officials who have continued to support the effort of the health department of our private practitioners, of all those who are here in this final effort to end the epidemic of aids. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you. next i'm going to introduce supervisor scott weaner from district 8 who is going to -- always supported the work that we've done here. and thank you for coming.

(applause) >> thank you, thank you. and i want to wish a very happy birthday to my colleague supervisor david campos. (applause) >> it seems like just yesterday that we were here and we had our hard hats on, and we were breaking the wall there when some friends of mine saw the photos, they told me i should not be wearing a hard hat. [laughter] >> it was a learning experience. so, you know, 30 years ago san francisco, we had to start going it alone. we had the epidemic break out here and we weren't getting a lot of support from the federal government and the state government. and this city did what we often do here. we pulled together and we got it done. and we took care of our community and we developed innovative ways for prevention and for treatment and for

making sure that people living with the disease had access to services. and fast forward 30 years, and this city continues to lead. and continues to be innovative and continues to be a beacon frankly to the rest of the world in terms of addressing the epidemic. and i wrote -- mayor lee mentioned it before, but i really want to stress how important it was when we lost $7 million in federal money in prevention and care money. and let me tell you, i remember supervisor campos and i sitting down and looking at each other, what are we going to do? this is a disaster. and we went and spoke with the mayor. mayor lee didn't even blink, and he restored in his budget all of that money. some mayors may have restored half of it and let the board scramble to find cuts or other readjustments to make up for the rest of it and mayor lee did 100% no game. mr. mayor, we are eternally grateful for that. (applause)

>> and i think this, what we're doing today, is also incredibly important because for those of us who were there when it wasn't such a foregone conclusion that we were going to be able to come out of this epidemic and even see the light at the end of the tunnel, there are a lot of young people who weren't there. and who maybe don't understand what it was like and what can happen and maybe don't always take it as seriously as we need to take it in terms of prevention. and when i came out in 1990 as a 20-year old, one of the first things i did, i went out to the bars of my lesbian cousin who was 14 years older and her partner, they said to me, you really need to start out with gay guys. you shouldn't just be hanging out with lesbians.

my cousin's partner said to me, you know, i really wanted to bring out some of my gay guy friends tonight, but they're all dead. for me as a 20-year old, that was permanently seared in my memory. you know, i've been careful ever since. but for a lot of younger guys in particular, didn't necessarily go through that. but this is so incredibly important that we continue to lead the way in terms of prevention and education and research because we can beat this disease and i know we're going to. so, congratulations, everyone. (applause) >> i'm pleased to introduce from district 9 supervisor david campos. (applause) >> thank you very much. i'll be very brief, and this is definitely a great birthday present. you know, i've known scott weaner for many years. we went to law school together,

and i think something he said about our youth today is something that is very, very important for us to remember. you know, as youth, you always have the concept of the invincibility of youth and we've all had that. you're a young person, you don't think that anything can happen to you. but the reality is that for folks who are part of this newer generation, they didn't go through that. and i think it's important for us to underscore the severity of this disease, of this illness, and it's still des mating many communities. and it is especially low-income communities, communities of color, you have gay african-american men, latino men infected on a daily basis. people forget we still have people dying of aids. i had a close friend of mine who recently passed away of aids, michael goldstein, and he was an advocate for hiv prevention for finding a cure for hiv.

and you can think of so many michael goldsteins. and dr. colfax and other people mentioned that. their memory lives on. and i think that we owe it to them to continue to recommit ourselves, rededicate ourselves to making sure that we prevent the spread of this disease, and that we do find a cure for this disease. and i just think about, you know, the possibilities with this building. this could well be the place where we do find a cure for aids. and if it's going to happen anywhere, why wouldn't it happen in san francisco? we have always led the way on so many different things. you know, the city of harvey milk is a city that has always recognized the dignity and humanity of every person and it's in line with that spirit that we are here today. and i do want to thank our mayor because as supervisor weaner noted, when the $7 million of funding was cut, even though we were lucky that for so many years leader pelosi

protected that, the mayor did not blink. the mayor wasn't even a question. and that's the beauty of san francisco. that when it comes to these issues, making sure that we take care of our own, that those questions are no-brainers for us. that is the san francisco way. so, i am very excited. i look forward to seeing the beautiful building, the gay man in me wants to see the design what it looks like inside. [laughter] >> so, let's get this going. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you. i want to say that this has been a collaborative effort on so many levels. and it's been a collaborative effort in the city as well. i want to next introduce mohammed nuru director of public works who was instrumental in helping us launch this project. (applause) >> thank you. i'll keep it brief. i just want to say thank you to the department of public health for being a great partner with dpw.

we've had a good opportunity to be able to renovate many of our health centers. we are building the new hospital and today this very, very great project. the project from dpw, we provided architectural design. we provided engineering and construction management. and i'd like to thank the team that worked on the project real quick, the project's architect, lamont and banito, please give them a hand. (applause) >> from the engineering james ing and ray louie, give them a hand. (applause) >> and for construction administration jose gordato. (applause) >> and, of course, from the public health side, mark primo from dpw, [speaker not understood] who both led these projects. a little quick note about the project itself, the building is

over 100 years old. and while all this work was going on, nobody in the building and all the people who work here, they were not disrutctionved. they were able to continue working. * disrupted and as you heard we are 70% complete and very, very happy to be here for this grand opening. and as we heard from all the speeches today, it will be a world renowned center and public works is happy to be part of that. thank you very much. (applause) >> so, none of this could have happened without the support of the public health department. we are fortunate to be working under dr. thomas argon who heads up the population public health unit. we are led by barbara garcia who is also the principal investigator of this project and i'm going to turn it to her. clap lap >> okay. as supervisor campos said, he

can't wait to get inside. one of the things about this grant, the face of staff is usually a grant with research. it is either study participants or services. but this is a little different one. we were the only health department in the country to receive this. most of this went to universities. one, we didn't have as big overhead as universities do. two, we have a lot of experience in doing building. and, so, we really had to work at making sure nobody got disrupted. i do believe i have a big thank you to real estate because i think we did give them i understand general election a couple times out there. -- indigestion i want to thank them. i see win of the employees who resigned as a retiree, he was instrumentsal. (applause) >> this took space planning and trying to figure out space and it's all you know in san

francisco, space can be a conflicting process. i think this worked really well. mark primo consulting with us on all our capital projects and departments. martin who provided a lot of leadership in this area. [cheering and applauding] >> and now that everybody is clapping, let's do the ribbon cutting and get inside. [laughter] >> okay. we're going to now do our ribbon cutting and then we're going to invite everybody in to tour the facility to get some hot coffee or tea, warm up, and some snacks. and if we could have the mayor and barbara come up and all of our other esteemed guests.

>> 4, 3, 2, 1. [cheering and applauding]

>> i'm your host of "culturewire," and today, here at electric works in san francisco. nice to see you today. thanks for inviting us in and showing us your amazing facility today. >> my pleasure. >> how long has electric works been around? >> electric works has been in san francisco since the beginning of 2007.

we moved here from brisbane from our old innovation. we do printmaking, gallery shows, and we have a fabulous retail store where there are lots of fun things to find. >> we will look at all of that as we walk around. it is incredible to me how many different things you do. how is it you identify that san francisco was in need of all these different services? >> it came from stepping out of graduate school in 1972. i wrote a little thing about how this is an idea, how our world should work. it should have printmaking, archiving, a gallery. it should have a retail store. in 1972, i wanted to have art sales, point-of-sale at the grocery store. >> so you go through the manifesto. with the bay area should have. you are making art incredibly

accessible in so many different ways, so that is a good segue. let's take a walk around the facilities. here we are in your gallery space. can you tell me about the current show? >> the current show is jeff chadsey. he is working on mylar velum, a smooth, beautiful drawing surface. i do not know anyone that draws as well as he does. it is perfect, following the contours and making the shape of the body. >> your gallery represents artists from all over, not just the bay area, an artist that work in a lot of different media. how to use some of what you look for in artists you represent? >> it is dependent on people are confident with their materials. that is a really important thing. there is enough stuff in the world already. >> you also have in his current

show an artist who makes sculpture out of some really interesting types of materials. let's go over and take a look at that. here we are in a smaller space. project gallery. >> artists used the parameters of this space to find relationships between the work that is not out in the big gallery. >> i noticed a lot of artists doing really site-specific work. >> this is a pile of balloons, something that is so familiar, like a child's balloon. in this proportion, suddenly, it becomes something out of a dream. >> or a nightmare. >> may be a nightmare. >> this one over here is even harder to figure out what the initial material is. >> this is made out of puffy paint. often, kids use it to decorate their clothes. she has made all these lines of paint. >> for the pieces we are looking

at, is there a core of foam or something in the middle of these pieces that she built on top of? >> i'm not telling. >> ah, a secret. >> this silver is aluminum foil, crumbled of aluminum foil. her aesthetic is very much that quiet, japanese spatial thing that i really admire. their attention to the materiality of the things of the world. >> this is a nice juxtaposition you have going on right now. you have a more established artists alongside and emerging artists. is that something important to you as well? >> very important in this space, to have artists who really have not shown much. now let's look at other aspects of electric works operation. let's go to the bookstore. >> ok.

>> in all seriousness, here we are in your store. this is the first space you encounter when you come in off the street. it has evolved since you open here into the most amazingly curious selection of things. >> this was the project for the berkeley art museum. it was -- this is from william wiley's retrospective, when he got up onstage to sing a song, 270 people put on the cat. >> it is not just a bookstore. it is a store. can you talk us through some of your favorites? >> these are made in china, but they are made out of cattails. >> these pieces of here, you have a whale head and various animals and their health over there, and they are jewelry. >> we do fund raisers for nonprofits, so we are doing a project for the magic theater,

so there are some pretty funny cartoons. they are probably not for prime time. >> you sort of have a kind of holistic relationship where you might do merchandise in the store that promotes their work and practice, and also, prince for them. maybe we should go back and look at the print operation now. >> let's go. >> before we go into the print shop, i noticed some incredible items you have talked back here. what are we standing in front of? >> this is william wiley, only one earth. this is a print edition. there are only eight total, and what we wanted to do was expand the idea of printmaking. this is really an art object.

there we go. >> besides the punball machine, what do you produce in limited edition? >> there is the slot machine. if you win the super jackpot, you have saved the world. >> what about work? >> the right design, it was three volumes with lithographs in each volume. the cab of count dracula with 20 lithographs inside and lined with beaver fur. really special. >> let's move on to the print shop. >> ok. the core of what we do is making things. this is an example. this is a print project that will be a fund-raiser for the contemporary music players. we decided to put it in the portfolio so you could either frame at or have it on your bookshelf.

>> so nonprofits can come to you, not just visual are nonprofits, but just nonprofits can come to you, and you will produce prints for them to sell, and the profits, they can keep. >> the return on investment is usually four times to 10 times the amount of investment. this is for the bio reserve in mexico, and this is one of the artists we represent. >> you also make prints for the artists that you represent. over here are some large prints by a phenomenal artist. >> he writes these beautiful things. anyone who has told you paradise is a book of rules is -- has only appeared through the windows. this is from all over coffee. we are contract printers for all kinds of organizations all across the country. >> thank you very much for showing us around today.

i really appreciate you taking the time to let me get better acquainted with the operation and also to share with our "culturewire" team. >> the question when i started 11 years ago when i started doing resolution work is can anything be presented on a really low resolution device where it is potentially a digital image? can anything be presented that way? or will it feel cold and electronic? >> the imagery will change.

there will be four different sets. it is a two dimensional image. it is stretched out into three dimensions. the device is part of the experience. you cannot experience the image without the device as being part of what you are seeing. whereas with the tv you end up ignoring it. i make gallery work more self and budget and public art work where i have to drop this of indulgence and think about how people will respond. and one of the things i was interested in the work and also a little fearful of, it is not until you get to the first and second floor were the work is

recognizable as an image. it is an exploration and perception is what it is. what are you seeing when you look at this image? one of the things that happens with really low resolution images like this one is you never get the details, so it is always kind of pulling you in kind of thing. you can keep watching it. i think this work is kind of experience in a more analytical way. in other words, we look at an image and there is an alice going on. -- and there is an analysis going on.